About Cal Skinner

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A funny thing happened in Rockford’s Federal Courthouse Friday. That was the day I went over to cover the plea bargain of former McHenry County Sgt. Greg Pyle. (You can read the story here.)

After the trial, I discovered that my car keys were not in my coat pocket. I retraced every step I took in the courthouse and was unsuccessful in finding them.

While waiting for my wife to bring another set of keys, all I could find to read was Pyle’s court records in the Court Clerk’s Office.

The first entry was the most interesting and revealing.

It was an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Wesley Tagmeyer.

Filed on August 14, 2012, the Agent told of being on a task force involved in investigating crimes against children.

The affidavit claimed that Pyle violated Federal law on December 13 & 14, 2008.

Location of Saint Anne, Illinois.

Tagmeyer reports investigating

aggravated sexual abuse of a child

sexual exploitation of a child and

production of child pornography

It started in August 2010 when a Federal search warrant was executed in a Saint Anne, Illinois, residence. There, “Individual A” admitted he had viewed and traded child pornography over the internet using

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

Yahoo Instant Messenger

Skype

In October. 2010, in a follow-up interview with “Individual A” he identified two screen names:

Scouts_Out_888

Trucido12

These were referred to as “Scouts/Trucido” or “Scouts” in the rest of the affidavit.

Investigating these names led to Gregory Pyle.

Pyle, the court document reads Pyle

“transmitted images of child pornography that included depictions of a minor child that Scouts/Trucido stated was his relative. Because Individual A was skeptical that the child was Scout’s relative, he asked Scouts/Trucido to send a picture of his relative holding a piece of paper containing Individual A’s screen name “Tightwhite.

“The image depicted a piece of paper with the word ‘tight’ held next to the nude buttocks of a child.”

The source also recalled the name of the relative [which I shall not reveal here].

The source further revealed that “during Skype video chats with Scouts/Trucido he heard the void of a third person in the background. He heard the third person say his name and that he was ten years old.”

Greg Pyle

Individual A also recalled that Scouts/Trucido had stated he lived in Wisconsin, was an Iraq War veteran and that his true name was “Greg” or “Bryan.”

The source stated that child pornography he received from Scouts/Trucido was saved on an external hard drive that was seized during the execution of the search warrant.

Examination of the external hard drives seized determined that approximately 263 files were included.

“Numerous images in the folder contained depictions of child porn,” the affidavit continued.

There followed graphic descriptions of three images, which are too graphic for me to want to share.

Google, Inc., identified the phone number referenced to Pyle as part of a Google Voice service account created June 13, 2010, including the email address [email protected]

The address was attacked to 3253 Autumncrest Drive in Crystal Lake. A second email address was created June 25, 2010: [email protected]

The affidavit reports that a search of Google for ILRattlesnake revealed two videos on YouTube identified as Pyle and various members of his family.

A search of the last four numbers of Pyle’s Social Security number were discovered to be the last four digits of phone numbers Scouts/Trucido provided to Individual A.

Fastest route from Crystal Lake to the Doubletree Hilton in Brookfield, Wisconsin

In January, 2012, an interviewer trained to talk to sexually abused children reported Child A “stated, among other things, in sum and substance that Gregory Pyle has sexually abused him on multiple occasions. Child A indicated the abuse began when he was approximately eight years old. He stated the abuse began when he was eight years old. He stated most of the sexual abuse occurred at the Pyle residence in Crystal Lake.”

Agent Tagmeyer reports two incidents took place in Wisconsin in conjuntion with Marquette University basketball games.

The first was over Christmas break when the boy was 9; the second when he was 10.

Hotels identified were the Hampton Inn and the Doubletree Hilton. Pyle stayed at the Doubletree on the night of December 13, 2008 with one child. The email address [email protected] was given to the hotel. That year, the boy was 10.

Concluding, Tagmeyer writes,

“Based on the information set forth above probable cause exists to believe on or about December 13, 2008, Gregory Pyle crossed a state line with the intent to engage in a sexual act with Child A, a person who had not then attained the age of 12.

“Based on the information set forth above, probable cause exists to believe that Gregory Pyle transported Child A in or affecting interstate commerce with the intent to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct that has been transported or transmitted using a means of interstate commerce or in or affecting interstate commerce.”